Of Hooves and Magic
by The Magical World of Sairina
Summary: Remus and Sirius are struggling with a nasty hex, while two seemingly ordinary girls are dragged into a world of magic when their boss gets two new horses.
1. Blacky and Moony

_Eva's P.O.V._

Today was a big day. Somewhat earlier than normal, I had cycled to the stables with my friend, Fauna, because two new horses had arrived. Once we had parked our bicycles next to the building, and were walking towards the meadows, we became truly nervous.

Would they be nice? What would they look like?

Questions of all kinds drifted through my mind, and probably through Fauna's too, as she staid surprisingly quiet.

"Would they be nice?" I asked then, just to break the silence.

"Of course they are!" Fauna said, rubbing her blond hair out of her face, "Has Bella ever bought a wrong horse?"

I smiled. We had already worked at these stables for nearly two years, and Bella, the owner, had a great sense for horses. She was the reason why this place was so very popular. Especially breeding Friesians was her specialty, and she mainly focused on keeping the foals as purebred as possible.

A few minutes later, we stood leaning against the fence of one of the meadows. In the pasture were two horses, a Friesian and a Haflinger, looking at us weirdly. The Friesian was majestic and elegant, with beautiful feathering and long, wavy mane. His black coat seemed to be radiating blue in the sunlight, as he trotted and snorted towards us.

The other horse shook his head, and kept more of a distance. He was pretty tall, and slightly dark for a Haflinger. His long mane covered both sides of his neck, as well as part of his forehead.  
Fauna stroked the black horse over his nose. "I wonder what he's like under the saddle," she said.

"Me too," I said, "But they are stallions, Bella told me. And I've never ridden a stallion before."

"We'll be fine! Bella wouldn't ask us to try out these horses if we couldn't handle them, would she?"

Again, I smiled, and from the corners of my eyes I saw Bella walking towards us. Her darks curls were bound in an appropriate ponytail, and like most of the time, she wore green eye shadow.

"Hi girls!" she said excited, "You've already met my new stallions, I see."

We nodded enthusiastically, but the Fauna spoke up. "What are their names?"

"Well, the Friesian is called Orion's Black Star and the Haflinger's name is Lunard's Radiant Moon," Bella said, "But yeah, you girls no the deal with purebred horses, they get those ridiculously fancy names, so I gave them nicknames, Blacky and Moony."

It wasn't difficult to tell where Bella got those names from. Moony had a blaze in the shape of a waxing moon, and Blacky was, well, black.

"Do you feel like going for a ride?" Bella asked. She held two halters in the air, a red one and a green one. "I've already brought their saddles to the stables, now all you have to do is fight over who gets to ride which one."


	2. Wild Horses

_Fauna's P.O.V._

"Can I take Blacky? Please, pretty please?!" I asked, jumping up and down hyperactively, "Please, please…"

Fine by me," Eva said with a smile, before I could finish talking.

"Yeah, thank you, thank you!" I said happily, giving my friend a big hug.

A little while later the horses were saddled, and we were ready to have a nice stroll through the forest.

"How about a little race?" I asked, "First one to reach the clearing wins."

Eva nodded, and we both spurred our horses. But as soon as my feet touch Blacky's belly, he starts to rear. I held on to the saddle as Eva tried to calm Blacky down. We managed to get his calm again, but I nearly fell off in the process, so I got back onto the saddle.

"What happened? Did you do something that spooked him?" Eva asked.

"Nee, I just spurred him, and then he went crazy, I have no idea why," I said thunderstruck.

"Come, let's go back," Eva said, thinking, "Maybe that's the smartest thing to do…"

Within minutes we're back at the riding school. We were bringing the horses back to their stables, when Bella came to us.

"Back already?" she asked, a surprised expression on her face.  
"Yeah, Blacky went bonkers when Fauna spurred him. It took us ages to calm him down, and he nearly threw Fauna," Eva explained and Bella was noticeably taken aback.

"Oh, are you all right, Fauna? No broken bones or anything?" she asked concerned.  
"Everything's fine, really, it just startled me," I said, but Bella was still bent on checking if I was okay. Luckily, there were no problems at all.

We removed the saddles and bridles from Blacky and Moony, and brushed them. Fortunately, Blacky was a lot nicer if you weren't on his back, so everything went just fine.  
Afterwards, just after having given the Friesian a carrot, Blacky stood in my way of getting out of his stable. He looked at me with big, sad eyes, like those of a puppy-dog. I thought that this was a bit weird, because he's a horses, and horses aren't supposed to have eyes like a begging dog? I thought and looked into his eyes for a bit. Probably, he had learned it, to get more sweets, just like we learn tricks. So I let it be, and after Eva lured Blacky away from the door, I went outside and Eva and I started taking care of the other horses.

When our work was finished, Eva and I walked to the riding arena, where Bella was practising dressage with Moony. We had been watching for, I dunno, ten or twenty minutes, when suddenly two mysterious people, a man and a woman, were behind us. They tapped on my back, and then asked, "I'm sorry, but do you know where we can make an appointment to hire some horses?"

"Yeah," I said.

"You can do that with us," Eva said, finishing my sentence.

"So, when would you like to go riding?" I asked as we walked to the administration.

"It might be a bit soon, but could we come tomorrow, around eleven o'clock?" the mysterious man asked.

"Yeah, sure," I answered.

"And could we have your names, please?" Eva asked.


	3. Unexpected Guests

_Eva's P.O.V._

For a second, the man seemed to be in doubt.

"You can put them under my name, James," he said, after a quick glance to the woman next to him.

"And you are?" I asked the woman, looking up from my notepad.

"Lily," she answered, "And I was wondering, could we get a tour here?"

"Of course!" Fauna said with a big smile on her face.

So we took them with us. The man, James, was tall and muscular with short, wild black hair. He had a pair of glasses, a black frame with round lenses, and he wore a red sweater with a deer on it. Lily was shorter than James and had long, wavy red hair. The most striking feature in her face were her eyes, bright green and sparkling. James held Lily's hand in his, and every once in a while, they spoke to each other softly, so soft that I could not hear what they said.

Were they in a relationship? I couldn't say for sure, but it sure looked like it.

The two of them followed us past the stables. A lot of Bella's horses were thoroughbreds, some of which she had even bred herself. For one reason or another she had a liking towards Friesians, which were abundant in these buildings. She also owned a few Andalusian and Arabian horses, because Bella liked how graceful they were. Apart from those, she had a few tame horses, which she used for the less experienced riders.

After seen the stables, we walked towards the meadows. A lot of the horses were inside, but because Blacky and Moony were still stallions, Bella preferred to keep them away from the mares. Bella had probably brought Moony to the meadows while we were showing Lily and James around, because we saw the two horses standing next to each other.

Whinnying loudly, Blacky cantered towards us and Moony followed in a brisk trot. Fauna leaned over the fence, a carrot in her hand. For a split second, the Friesian's eyes were focused on the food, but then he turned to James. Something seemed to have triggered him, because he went completely berserk. He whinnied shrill and high-pitched, and danced nervously on his spot.

"Whoa, Blacky, calm down," Fauna had started, but Blacky didn't care.

On the contrary, he became even wilder. He reared and nearly hit Moony, who could barely dive away. Moony flattened his ears, probably out of irritation, neighed and lashed out to Blacky with his front leg.

"Sorry, they're usually not like this," I said, "I know everyone else says the same, but trust me, it's true, they were really calm this morning!"

"Uh-huh," James nodded absently. He was focused on the horses, until Lily poked him in the side.

"What do you think, James?" she asked.

"These two," he said resolutely, "These two are the ones we'd like to rent."

"Is that a good idea?" Fauna and I said at the same moment.

"I mean, they're really wild," I said.

"And we don't even know how well you can ride," Fauna added.

"Oh, don't fret about it," Lily said smiling, "my husband knows what he's talking about and I have quite some experience with riding too. We'll be fine, really."

I frowned, but the muttered an 'okay'. The customer is always right, right?

"So, we'll see you guys tomorrow morning?" James asked.

Fauna nodded. "We'll make sure that the horses will be ready for you."

"Thank you, see you tomorrow," Lily said as she started to walk away together with James.

In the meanwhile, the two horses were still bickering, but when Blacky saw that our two guests were leaving, he focused on them again. Briefly, he seemed to be in blind panic, but then switched to determination. He nickered one last time, but then started to charge. Moony looked up in shock, but Blacky cantered on.

Blacky pushed himself from the ground with his back hooves and his front hooves came from the ground, in a desperate attempt to jump over the fence.


End file.
